Fiserv Rings Bell on NASDAQ as a Much Different Company From its Early Days

NEW YORK- It's been just about 20 years since Fiserv went public and oh how things have changed. Fiserv first went public in 1986 and was about a $70 million company. Today it has 22,000 employees, 16,000 clients and is a $3.4 billion company. It is one of the credit union industry's most important vendors. It has seven credit union data processing subsidiaries - XP Systems, CUSA Technologies, IntegraSys, Summit, Galaxy, USERS and AFTECH. Philosophically, Fiserv still believes in its acquire and leave alone strategy, though it is also stressing organic growth. It has made over 100 acquisitions in its history. On Oct. 12 Fiserv President and CEO Les Muma and COO Norm Balthasar led the opening ceremonies for the day's trading on the NASDAQ. They were joined by Fiserv's Management Committee - a 16-member panel, including Muma and Balthasar, that sets Fiserv's corporate direction. Tom Neil, who runs the company's credit union division, was present. It had to be a special day for Muma, one of Fiserv's original founders. Muma made news earlier this year by announcing he will retire in 2006. A successor has not yet been named. "We say many times at Fiserv that people make the difference. Technology doesn't make us better than the competition. People do. It's a concept that we believe has worked exceptionally well at Fiserv since our founding," said Muma.